Train 156 was operating 30-40 minutes late this morning and train 158 had to take on two trains worth of people at Salem and Beverly.

Needles to say, it was a sardine can, standing room only, vestibules full and not everyone being able to board. To make matters worse, we were a express train and dispatch told them they had to make all stops. Yeah, with what room. We made the stops, no room for anyone to board. lol

These trains all appeared to hit Salem at the same time with 104 in the lead causing even further delays due to train traffic. Train 104 hit Salem station at 160s scheduled time and took on all of 160s passengers. 160 came to Salem right behind 104 and took on very few passengers and was pretty empty. I was on 160 and we were stuck behind 104 for awhile operating at reduced speed. Fortunately it we both were express so we didn't have to deal with station stops. After the Sagas marshes they were able to switch us over to the outbound track and we passed 104 going across the grade crossings in Chelsea. Quite of few people on that train with the "Are you kidding me" look as we passed them.

Yes, 104 was shoving in the whole way, so the best they could do was 30 MPH. 106 was following them on bad signals, and 160 was following 106 on bad signals.There was an opportunity for 160 to have better signals by putting them on a parallel track, so that's what happened. And 104 was bogging 106 down so much that 160 actually made the pass.

No service alert as of 0640/10-11-2017, but the 40.2 gave the 402 on Track 2 an "Integrity Failure" and 47 axles 0607. D-3 had them do a roll-by at Shirley, and the 0611 results were 1 flat spo, but otherwise OK. Wasn't in range for 404, so dunno what if any follow-on there was.

The person struck by a train in Concord, MA about 10:30 or 11 p.m. on Monday, October 9 was an 18-year-old day student at Concord Academy. He died. Transit Police posted that the student had been trespassing on the track near Nashoba Road and no foul play was suspected.

Totally aside from the victims’ families’ grief, I shudder to think what toll this is taking on the train crews. I recall reading somewhere that the average (commuter?) engineer strikes two people in their whole career, but with these 2017 figures, I fear that this will happen to our engineers twice this year alone.